The Big Booty Jane Calendar.

So I am working on a Calendar. I think i might have mentioned this before. I decided to do a pin up calendar but I wanted to have it feature a fun plus size character and have it be different from what I usually see in pin ups. I just hope it accomplishes that.

I have laid out a lot of pages, but I am going to put project on hold for a little while while I work completing the first  story of Big Booty Jane, Galactic Space Cop.

I always liked sci fi and I wanted to do something that would also make me laugh and in a way make fun if sci fi so I put together this story!

The first story is going to debut in Smut Peddler so I cant share to much with you guys. Oh and by the way, its a erotic comic. Will be drawing lots of naked people. LOL!

I stopped doing nudity for a long time in my work. But I realize its not that I don't like drawing that sort of thing, I just don't really like drawing it for other peoples requests and commissions. I would rather do fun playful stuff that I find appealing and personally enjoyable. If other  people enjoy it as well then cool.  If not then they don't have to look at it.

I guess it all comes down to self expression.

I already get the occasional on looker that thinks something is wrong with my drawing pin ups. I don't know how many times I have heard other say I draw women as if I am a man.  I had a older women at a comic convention scold me for drawing pin ups and then buy one of the drawings I did of storm lol!

At the end of it you cant make everyone happy. So you draw what makes you happy instead. Be yourself and be creative!

The Wrong Environment Can Make or Break You

I spent a lot of years fighting to be what I thought other people wanted and finding I was never satisfying enough for the individual I was trying to please (especially when it comes to family.)  Pleasing people has been a bad habit a long time and I am looking to change it.

The reason why is cause people often project their own personal experiences, both good and bad, onto you and then expect you to handle situations the way they would have handled it. But then, there is no guarantee they would have handled it correctly themselves. 

I think one of the most important things a person can do for their careers is finding the right environment with the right like minded people where everyone is giving each other room to be themselves. That is when innovation and creativity really begin to take off.

Trying to convince someone, that knows nothing about what it is you love to do, that you are doing the right thing when they think it is wrong, is like trying to fit an elephant into a small glass bottle. People who are not artists or business owners always want to tell the artist or business owner to get a real job and do what they love on the side.  Meanwhile, you got all these people out there that are running their business on a full time basis, successfully. 

So you mean I should quit doing what I am doing and go work for someone that is already doing what I am trying to do for myself. Yeah I would call that bad advice. It’s hard though. Especially when the bad advice comes from family, that have certain expectations of you to perform a certain manner. Usually that means doing what they did growing up to get where they are now.

Unfortunately not everyone is meant to be a follower in this world. Some of us have to be leaders too!

School Can Pull You Down

   Seen to many friends get lost in their expectations of what school was supposed to bring them and they ended up forgetting who they were.  The bad thing about art school in particular is that not only is it way to expensive, but you got all these individuals claiming to be an authority on how to have a successful career telling you that you need to do things the way they did them when the teachers aren’t even working in the field they are teaching you about.
I learned this the hard way!

I heard of people going to school graduating and then becoming teachers at the school they graduated from and teaching the new students coming in how they think they should be drawing or painting and then failing them if they don’t do what the teacher expects.

The funny thing about animation is it’s not just about entertainment. Animation is an art form, as well. You are an artist first and animation is only an expression of that. After all it’s the next stage of progression in creativity. We love seeing our imagination bloom to life.  I am coming to find there are a lot less rules and regulations than I thought there were.  Your lines don’t have to be perfect all the time. The colors don’t have to be bright and vivid to get people’s attention.  Hell you may not need color at all! You just gotta go out and be creative. Fuck what they say!

Side note: I am not discouraging getting an education. just saying be careful how you let it effect you.Make sure you always think for yourself and avoid letting others make decisions for you. ( times out of 10 what is right for you is going to be wrong for someone else and vise versa.

Value your art work more than anyone else no matter what!!

Sometimes when you get use to doing something all the time you start to see it as not all that important of a thing. For a long time as an artist I have to admit I didn't understand the value of what i do. That it could effect people or be important to others. Especially when it comes to fan art.

 I figure its not my characters its no big deal, but there are some people out here that see dollar signs when they see your abilities and those individuals will do what ever they  possibly can to get in your favor if it means they can get a little peace of what you do and they can use it for themselves.

We live in a world where we are told to be good, and how to act, and how to not hurt others, and to love others as they love us and treat them how we want to be treated. But underlying those old sayings there is a pit of snakes waiting to grab hold of the next over excited artist looking to "get exposure" or that is just excited that someone liked there stuff, so much so, that they are willing to give it away.

I heard a saying the other day at work. it goes like this. " How do you get an artist to work for free?    Tell them how great there art is."

Since moving to LA I see it more now than I ever did. a cesspool of disgusting people waiting to find there next sucker so they can walk all over them and make them do what they want all while making the person being victimized feel bad about not liking how they are being treated.

Artist if you don't value what you do I have news for you. There's someone out there waiting for the chance to take the things you don't feel like are important and turn it into profit for themselves.  They are waiting for the chance to take that sketch you through in the trash heap cause you didn't like it and flip it for there own benefit. They might even claim to be you just so they can get some attention for themselves.

Protect yourself at all costs. You deserve better than being used and abused for someone selfish greed.

Being Yourself in Your Art/Looney Toons

I was watching bugs bunny cartoons the other day! I love the old Bob Clampet stuff!  So much fun.  What I realized is that there is no perfection in the animation. There are all kinds of weird things going on and being done just to get a laugh out of the viewer.

Like one second a horse might have hooves and the next he has hands!

They really played! The artists just had fun and were creative. They were themselves! Sometimes the cartoons barely even had a story. Characters would commit suicide and then sit up and address the viewer. One scene bugs bunny gives a dog a gun and encourages him to kill himself! WHAT! Insanity!

Reminds me how much I just love cartoons.

My mom told me this story once about how when I was a kid, she asked my uncle to baby sit for her. So he did! Little did he know that this 3 year old was an insane cartoon maniac!!  He was so mad at her because she dropped me off and I told him I wanted to watch cartoons, but there were no cartoons on tv. So I screamed and cried the entire time he was babysitting me because I wanted to watch cartoons! He was so mad when my mom returned that he told her he would never babysit me ever again!

HAHA! Sometimes I guess you are just born with it.

Be yourself it is so much more fun!

Big Booty Jane in moving along!!

Thanks to everyone that has been loving on Jane! I am so excited about this project. I havent produced anything like this ever so All to support is really appreciated!!

doing a lot of color testing. planning to make some nice watercolored originals for the calendar.

 

I am working on a script right now and story for a big project coming up featurung her. Not just a calendar but yes a comic!!  I got into Smut Peddler 2014. I cant wait to get started!!  I want to put together a sketch book with all my concept art and stuff from the calendar and the comic!

Thanks to everyone that has been liking and reblogging Jane's Big Booty!

Daily sketches back up and running!!

So I finally got my daily sketches back up and running. I just havent been posting them here that is all. I am in the process of overhauling everything. I want a new look to the blog and my website as well.

If you want to check out the Daily Sketches they have been getting posted on my Deviantart page.

 http://mainasha.deviantart.com/ 

at the moment. I Hopefully for the month of November daily sketches will be posted here as well. just gotta buy some more paper.

I also have a instagram now and you can see a lot of my caricature work on there. 

http://instagram.com/ariemonroe

My biggest project that I want to start posting progress on is Big Booty Jane.

I am experimenting with coloring traditional media digitally. Hope you can enjoy these. More to come soon.

~Arie

My Career in Animation: Confidence

I am working on my confidence.  It’s hard when you’ve been down a long time, to find ways to pick yourself up. But, I believe it’s possible. I think I realized that most people are a work in progress when it comes to confidence. It’s all about learning to like who and what you are. Every individual I meet is at their own level and trying to rise.

I use to get self-conscience if a person would say, “hey I like that drawing,” cause I felt like just saying thank you was like being egotistical. Then one day I realized its actually common courtesy to thank someone for a compliment.

I also spent a lot of years trying to encourage other people and giving advice to make them feel better about themselves and their work while trying to fade into the background to let the other person shine. Why, because I didn’t feel I deserved to shine, or like I was good enough to shine like everyone else.  Unfortunately this post isn’t just about art. It’s also about living in general. It’s just a bad attitude that has invaded my art career and started to reflect itself on the decision I have been making. Not in a good way.

Like for example, getting a job interview at that dream job and then having to go in and sell yourself and talk yourself up to the employer and convince them that you are going to be a great asset to their business.  How do you convince an employer you are awesome when you actually don’t consider yourself to be awesome!

Just showing a great portfolio isn’t enough. A lot of people have great portfolios. Reminds me of the tv series Evangalion. I loved that show. There is a seen where Asuka is yelling at Shinji about not ever even loving himself.

Shinji runs into the room and Asuka is sitting at a table with her head down.  He is begging and pleading with her to love him and to help him. She stands up and pushes him down. He goes into a rage throwing tables and chairs and screaming and her reply is no. In the end Shinji just needed to recognize he needed to do it for himself.

This clip is subbed, but still very intense. Probably more intense in Japanese than English but I will post both.

Second clip is longer:   Enjoy!

My new years resolution. Learn to love myself and treat myself well. The same as I do for others. I quote from the bible.

Romans 13:9

New International Version (NIV)

⁹ The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not covet,”^[a] and whatever other command there may be, are summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

I think this is a double ended statement now.  I have started to see something else in it. How can you treat others like you want to be treated and you love others like you want to be loved when you can’t even love being you. Is loving yourself the beginning of  having confidence? I think so. I also think it is the key to knowing how to love others. Other people, and how they treat us, is a reflection of how we treat ourselves isn’t it?

Universal Stories: Everyday I'm Hustlin

No seriously! Everyday I am expected to get out there and get my hustle on! One of the requirements of a caricature artists especially in the slow season is to try and bring in new customers as best as we can.  This last week we started a $5 off sale on the black and whites and what ends up happening is we get more customers wanting to take advantage of the sale.

Anyway, I generally like to practice to draw attention when things are slow. here is a recent one I did.
This would have been Justin Beiber but a lady walked by and saw me drawing him and wanted the drawing for her daughter in Australia! So she bought it just as I was finishing it! Oh Yeah!

Anyway, did this pic of Rihanna. she is wearing sun glasses so it makes her seem like she could be anyone. I need to get a better picture.

Out and about in LA: LOL Me Singing!

Last few weeks been doing some drink and draws after work with friends from work out in city walk. There is a little karaoke night every Thursday so I got up and had some fun. Please don't laugh at me. i am being brave by posting this! Dont judge me world!

Pinup of the week! Bettie Page

I have all these Bettie age sketch cards that I need to get drawn on so I decided to do just that. here is a little sampling of that. I plan to put these up on ebay so if you are interested in getting one you can head over and bid or you can just message me and I will sell you one!

On the Drawing Desk: Getting Ready for the Shows

I feel like there is so much I want to do and so little time to do it in. In April the Planet comic convention is coming up in Kansas City and I want to make sure I can be there. Gives me a little time to prepare but then there are a lot of things I want to do at the same time.

Art shows, cover letters, job apps, new personal art, etc, just to name a few things. I feel a little anxiety about it all to tell the truth. I am just trying to figure out how to bring it all together.Ii figure its all about taking a step at a time.

I believe the first step is just getting a plan together to get new artwork and prints done for the show. maybe spend an hour per day on the job search, as well. I think it is all in planning and then doing. Gotta stay focused. Lets DO THIS!!

Was working on this fantastic 4 comic cover . through a little airbrush on it to experiment. its not done yet.

Out and about in LA: Seeing the Site

 

My best friend Emil came down from Chicago to hang out a bit and we did some site seeing. We went to the wax museum and we walked around Hollywood a bit. It was good fun.